Prologue 1: Lying is bad, mmkay?

She picked me out of all the other village kids because I was strong.

"Protect me, so none of them's ever gonna bully me again!"

I punched her straight to the face.

She went home teary-eyed that day. Of course that was what came for her. She was an outsider after all. That girl, Erika Mei, was the daughter of a traveling alchemist who came to our village to study the nearby ruins. Our village hated outsiders, but nobody could push him away with the kingdom backing him up. Or that was what mom said.

Because her dad was too busy studying the ruins, she was usually alone. The girls ignored her, and us boys bullied her. We stole her money, threw mud balls at her, and occasionally ganged together to beat her up.

She was an easy target. She never fought back and the adults would turn their heads away. And she took it all without crying. It even became a game between us, to see who would make her cry first.

This was our everyday life in this small and quiet village of Efflorescence.

Until the day she asked to be protected.

The next day, she tried again the next with a clumsily-made rice ball.

"Here! Now protect me!"

She went home all black and blue that day, with her blue hair sullied brown and her face smudged with rice.

The next day, she came back once more with a slightly better rice ball.

"Here's a better one. Please protect me!"

We laughed, mocked her, then went right straight to beating her. Outsiders weren't supposed to be haughty. Fat Jon's punch knocked her unconscious, so we left her there out in the cold as we went back to our houses to enjoy our family's warm meals.

The next day, she brought three rice balls.

"A boy's gotta eat lots. Will you please protect me?"

It was almost fun seeing her desperately try.

But no matter how much we beat her up, she would never give up. She did this every day, improving her rice ball, even adding some fancy designs to impress me. She took every beating without complaining, patiently waiting for my help.

I was never moved. Outsiders were absolute evils in our village, and everyone would turn on me if I did something so stupid like side with her.

One day, I thought of a way to make her stop. I gathered all my friends and told them my plan, and they all agreed on it with smiles. They made their preparations, and I was left to meet her at the plaza alone.

"Fine, I'll protect you."

I could never forget her shining expression filled with happiness and relief that day, and how it made my heart twitch a bit. But the moment she wrapped her arms around me and endlessly said her thanks, wiping her tears in my clothes, that small fragment of guilt was crushed. It became a funny scene. Why would she easily believe me after everything I've done to her? Outsiders were so stupid.

"*hic*, finally... Finally! Thanks so much!"

I asked her to join me in my secret base deep inside the Farwitch Forest, and she followed like a puppy, fully trusting my words. We passed through a path where monsters never passed, until we reached a clearing.

"The base? Where's the base? I hope it's a treehou—"

I knocked the wind out of her lungs and pushed her to the center of the clearing, where the ground immediately collapsed and brought everything and that girl crashing down to the bottom of a deep hole.

"*cough* *cough*... Eh? W—what happened?"

Everyone came out of their hiding places. We all looked down on her pathetic shaking figure all covered in scratches and bruises, and began to laugh at her.

We mocked her for her stupidity. We shouted at her to get out of this village with her father. Some of us even spat at her. Tears were freely streaming down her face, but she never cried out loud. She really was stupid.

Finally, when sunset arrived and we were all prepared to leave her, she shouted back at us.

"You should all be careful going home at this time!"

"Hey, she's actually tryn'a scare us! Ha ha!"

"Maybe... No! Not at all!"

She began crazily telling us how some monsters in this forest weren't acting how they were supposed to at night, and that we should all be extra careful. But we all saw through her. This forest has always stayed the same for a thousand years. Monsters would never pass the path thanks to the Hero's Protection. There was no way it was going to change now.

She thought she could fool us villagers. Outsiders were so stupid. We wished in our hearts that she would starve to her death alone in that hole, and talked about the games we would play the next day on our way home.

My everyday life was back, was what I thought back then.

I was wrong, and she was right.

Like a nightmare, a huge dark figure leapt towards us and ripped Fat Jon's throat with its sharp fangs, splashing his blood on our face as it messily chewed on my friend.

It was a horrifying scene. The colors drained from our faces as we watched that towering abomination swallow what was laughing with us just moments ago. The gigantic wolf that stood on two legs, a wolfran, was done with Fat Jon down to the last bone, and eyed on its next meals. I quickly snapped out of it.

"Everyone, run!"

We ran and ran like headless chickens, away from that wolfran that was catching up at an incredible pace. My foot got caught on a root and my body slammed on the forest floor. I shouted for help. None of them even spared me a glance, hoping in their hearts that I would be enough to distract the monster.

I knew, because I would do the same.

I was crestfallen.

Resentment grew in my hearts. Revenge was the only thing on my mind as I watched those razor-sharp fangs glistening with saliva and blood plunge towards my head.

But that chomp never came. Instead, the wolfran missed me, and was now squirming on the ground scratching its face off with its sharp claws. I couldn't understand what just happened. It kept scratching until it couldn't scratch no more, and its body finally stopped moving.

I heard footsteps approach from behind.

"Whew, that was super close. Are you okay, Key? Did that monster scratch you anywhere?"

It was a familiar voice. I looked above, and was showered with a soft smile, one that silently told me that everything was okay. Her battered figure was angelic under the full moon's silver glow, and only now realized what a beauty she was, greater than even anyone on the village. But worst of all, her emerald pupils, filled with genuine worry, pierced through my soul.

"No scratches, it seems. That's good."

A dam broke within me. Guilt came crashing down, and I shamelessly cried in front of her.

"Oh no, your foot's hurt... Don't worry, I got something that should fix it up."

She kneeled down, took a small bottle filled with a green liquid from a pouch behind her waist, and applied it on my foot with a cloth. But I didn't care about that. She couldn't understand my continued crying, so she kept rubbing until I calmed down.

"*sniff* Are you stupid? Why would you save... a bastard like me?"

She lightly knocked my head, as if admonishing me.

"I'm not stupid. You are. How're you gonna protect me if you're dead, genius?"

"You dumb idiot! I lied, okay? I tricked you so we could all see you suffer! Get that through your thick skull!"

"... I don't care if it's a lie."

I finally noticed it. She was all wobbly, and was exerting herself just to stay conscious. This idiot. She kept rubbing my foot, like it was her life's purpose.

"At the very least... let me believe on it... that beautiful lie..."

"Erika?"

She collapsed, her hand still gripping the cloth.

That night, I felt like a newfound power awakened deep inside me. The pain that gripped my whole body was gone and was washed with a strange calmness. I stood up and effortlessly carried her fragile body with both arms. She was surprisingly light, even with the fact that she was much shorter than me.

"I'll protect you... You can't even hear me say it properly. You're the stupid one."

On that night, I, Key Falen, descendant of the hero who slain the Demon Lord a thousand years ago, made a pact that would shape my entire life with a sleeping girl.

I guess I was the stupid one.